Travelogue, Photography & All Things Adventure!

We chose to head to the Viñales on a 3-day tour to escape the hustle and bustle of noisy Havana. The internet hails this lush green oasis as a must-see part of Cuba. Tobacco, coffee, sugarcane and numerous other crops are cultivated at the bottom of the valley and towering limestone cliffs (called mogotes) offer tourists numerous hiking and rock climbing options. Among these elevations are the oldest mountains existing in Cuba and some of the oldest in the Caribbean. There are also impressive geological formations and cave systems throughout the hill faces.

Viñales is about a three hour drive from Havana, although naturally it took us about six in the ancient truck that was sent to fetch us for our tour. It kept breaking down on the highway and needed to be restarted by hot-wiring. Still, it beats the crowded sweat-soaked buses, or horse-drawn carriages that many locals still ride into the city to sell their crops.

Though it is small, Viñales thrives on tourism. The town consists of rows of beautiful pastel colored casas—each distinctively named—-where visitors can rent out rooms. We were dropped off at a bright pink house (much to my delight) called Casa Musica. However, this pastoral place is not just houses. Just down the road is the seat of commerce, where numerous small businesses—-including a market, shops and restaurants—-make their home.

Maurice, our Airbnb host in Havana, picked us up in the airport just as the daily rainstorm was starting. We were trying to figure out how to overcome our language barrier (he spoke French, and minimal Spanish/English) and he gave us some advice that managed to carry us through our days in the city. The first Cuban Spanish phrase we learned was: “Taxi collectivo. El Capitolio. One CUC.” That bit of logistical knowledge and a tall glass of tamarindo juice were our welcome to the country.

The aesthetics of Cuba are something to marvel at. It’s an amazing melange of near-ancient Spanish architecture from the early colonial efforts, and 1950’s and 60’s modernism. Take those influences, don’t repair them for a couple of decades (because proper maintenance is expensive) and then paint it all pastel. The cars are the same; beautiful colors, and everything is stripped down on the inside. All the things that are not essential are torn out–you might have to short-circuit some wires to roll the windows down or start things up. You can see classic American, Russian, or French cars going down the road at all hours–those are the taxis.

We never thought Las Vegas would be our cup of tea. We’re not night owls, and we don’t gamble. We hardly live that Hunter S. Thompson lifestyle (anymore). Why on earth would we want to go to this pseudo-oasis in the desert?

It seemed ostentatious and gaudy, like everything was dripping with excessive tasteless ornamentation. But when you get that French Revolution aesthetic underneath bright lights, the place looked fake. You can see the makeup on the Elvis impersonator, the grease on the used car salesman. The neon sign flickers and fades out.

My cousin Tony was getting married, and we didn’t know what to expect for the nuptials. We heard we were supposed to dress casually and that the King would be involved somehow, but we weren’t sure how. They were married at the historic Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel and had a cocktail reception atop the Mandalay Bay Resort overlooking the city. It was one of the most fun and unique weddings we had ever been to.

This post will be bite-sized compared to what you are used to. In case you thought we had dropped off the map, we are so sorry! It has been a time of transition and figuring out our next steps.

I finish up my Master’s degree in less than 2 months (I know, I can’t believe it either!) and we will be leaving the South to start our next big adventure in June. Our time here has been very bittersweet.

After we decided to move, we realized we had barely explored the area that we’ve been living in. Since we haven’t had time for long-distance travel, we’ve been satiating the travel bug by taking a lot of weekend excursions to new places in North Carolina and surrounding states. Most notably: I went to Tallahassee to see my beautiful friend Jen get married and had a delightful day trip to Savannah with some girlfriends.

We visited China recently to attend the wedding of one of our closest friends (formerly translator and life-saver). Davi and his blushing bride Cherry graciously invited us back to spend a week with their family and friends to celebrate with them. Naturally, we accepted their invitation!

We packed our bags with our finest dress clothes and stuffed our suitcases with gifts for the happy couple. We weren’t sure precisely which day the wedding would be on, but we booked our trip for a few weeks. We quickly realized that we knew absolutely nothing about attending a Chinese wedding. We didn’t know if there was a ceremony, what activities to expect or what to wear. As a result, we ended up embarrassing ourselves quite frequently.

Thus we bring you this post about one of the most fascinating weeks of our lives. Here are some things we learned and some things that happened to us. Perhaps they will help you out if you ever find yourself in the unlikely position we were in.

China is a country where everything changes and nothing ever really changes. Where the old meets the new and the future mingles intimately with the past. It’s been more than 2 years since we left China, but the country welcomed us back with open arms.

William Gibson once said something to the effect of: the future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed. As a corollary to that, China is where the future is happening in real time. You can go there and watch a government and its people leapfrog over half a century of entrenched infrastructural decisions and come up with something that addresses their needs in a more innovative way.

With a quick overnight stay in Fuzhou, we took the newly constructed fast train back to Jian’ou for the wedding of our dear friend and translator (more on the Chinese wedding experience in our next post). Now Davi is an English teacher himself with an apartment, car, and a beautiful new wife who we were meeting for the very first time.

I realized that I hadn’t made anything for you guys in a while, so I thought I would share one of my favorite holiday recipes. I firmly believe it’s going to be your new breakfast tradition.
For five fateful months after we returned from living in Asia, I worked at a bread bakery.I want to start off by saying that have an enormous amount of respect for bread bakers! They literally work 24 hours a day and are some of the most dedicated individuals I have ever known. I made some amazing friends at that bakery. If you see a bread baker today, you should thank them for the deliciousness they bring into the world. No, I did not bake bread. I was in charge of mise-en-place and small pastries. Sadly, I couldn’t really hack it as a professional (too stressful). I’ll stick to home baking, thanks!
Anyways, rolling out those huge batches of cinnamon rolls was the one task that I especially couldn’t stand. We had a standard for our cinnamon rolls. Many people believe, they are the best in town- enormous doughy messes oozing with butter and caramelized cinnamon sugar. My boss and I had extremely different icing philosophies (I heard the phrase “this isn’t Cinnabon!” shouted a lot). They were the bane of my existence. I had nightmares about those cinnamon rolls, okay? Honestly, I haven’t been able to make a cinnamon roll since I stopped working there.

But V, you might be asking yourself, what do we do about festive mornings when we are all hungover and require a sweet treat?Continue reading →